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Genetics is the branch of science concerned with genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms. It seeks to understand the process of trait inheritance from parents to offspring, including the molecular structure and function of genes, gene behaviour in the context of a cell or organism (e.g. dominance and epigenetics), gene distribution, and variation and change in populations.
A parachute-like skin membrane, the patagium, evolved independently in several marsupial species. Genomic analysis suggests that this trait came about through different changes to the regulation of the same gene.
A therapeutic strategy that alters gene expression in a rare and severe neurodevelopmental condition has been tested in stem-cell-based models of the disease, and has been shown to correct genetic and cellular defects.
Genetic pedigrees spanning nine generations uncover the social organization of a nomadic empire that dominated much of central and eastern Europe from the sixth to the early ninth century.
In C. elegans, systemic RNAi is initiated by SID-1-mediated dsRNA internalization. Here the authors present cryo-EM structures of SID-1 homologs and the SID-1–dsRNA complex, elucidating the structural basis for dsRNA recognition and uptake by SID-1.
Patagia—the mammalian gliding membrane—repeatedly originated through a process of convergent genomic evolution, whereby the regulation of Emx2 was altered by distinct cis-regulatory elements in independently evolved species.
In this Journal Club article, Olivia Rissland describes how a 1987 paper by Don Cleveland and colleagues provided insight into co-translational gene regulation of tubulin.
A parachute-like skin membrane, the patagium, evolved independently in several marsupial species. Genomic analysis suggests that this trait came about through different changes to the regulation of the same gene.
A therapeutic strategy that alters gene expression in a rare and severe neurodevelopmental condition has been tested in stem-cell-based models of the disease, and has been shown to correct genetic and cellular defects.